---
title: "Backup & Restore"
sidebar_position: 85
description: "Backup and restore your Convex data and files"
---

Convex supports Backup & Restore of data via the
[dashboard](https://dashboard.convex.dev/deployment/settings/backups).

![Backups Page](/screenshots/backups.png)

# Backups

A backup is a consistent snapshot of your table data made at the time of your
request. Backups can be configured to include file storage.

Take a manual backup by pressing the "Backup Now" button. This may take a few
seconds to a few hours, depending on how much data is in your deployment.

Manual backups are stored for 7 days. You can download or delete backups via
this page.

Deployment configuration and other data (code, environment variables, scheduled
functions, etc.) will not be included.

### Periodic Backups

Schedule a periodic daily or weekly backup by checking the "Backup
automatically" box. You can select what time of day / day of week to have the
backup occur and whether to include file storage or not.

Daily backups are stored for 7 days. Weekly backups are stored for 14 days.

<ProFeatureUpsell feature="Periodic backups" verb="require" />

### Restoring from backup

Restore from a backup by selecting "Restore" from the submenu of an individual
backup. You can restore from backups in the same deployment or from other
deployments on the same team by using the deployment selector on the backups
page. Restores may take a few seconds to a few hours depending on how much data
is in your backup.

Note that restoring is a destructive operation that wipes your existing data and
replaces it with that from the backup. It's recommended that you generate an
additional backup before doing a restore.

Existing files in the deployment will not be deleted when restoring from a
backup, but any files in the backup that do not currently exist in the
deployment will be uploaded to the deployment.

### Restoring in an emergency

If your production deployment ends up in a bad state, you may want to consider
doing a restore to return to a good state. Note that getting your data to a good
state may not be enough. Consider whether you may need each of the following
actions. Depending on the nature of your emergency, these may be required.

- Take an additional backup prior to restore, since restores are destructive
- Do a restore from a good backup - to restore data
- Use `npx convex dev` to push a known version of good code.
- Use `npx convex env` or the dashboard to restore to a good set of env vars
- Use the dashboard to make any manual fixes to the database for your app.
- Write mutations to make required (more programmatic) manual fixes to the
  database for your app.

# Downloading a backup

You can download your manual and periodic backups from the dashboard via the
download button in the menu.

Alternatively, you can generate an export in the same format with the
[command line](/cli.md#export-data-to-a-file):

```sh
npx convex export --path ~/Downloads
```

The backup comes as a generated a ZIP file with all documents in all Convex
tables in your deployment.

The ZIP file's name has the format `snapshot_{ts}.zip` where `ts` is a UNIX
timestamp of the snapshot in nanoseconds. The export ZIP file contains documents
for each table at `<table_name>/documents.jsonl`, with one document per line.

Exported ZIP files that include [file storage](/file-storage) will contain
storage data in a `_storage` folder, with metadata like IDs and checksums in
`_storage/documents.jsonl` and each file as `_storage/<id>`.

### Using the downloaded backup.

Downloaded ZIP files can be imported into the same deployment or a different
deployment
[with the CLI](/database/import-export/import.mdx#restore-data-from-a-backup-zip-file).

## FAQ

### Are there any limitations?

Each backup is accessible for up to 7 days.

On the Free/Starter plan, up to two backups can stored per deployment at a time.
Deployments on Convex Professional plan can have many backups with standard
usage based pricing.

### How are they priced?

Backups uses database bandwidth to read all documents, and file bandwidth to
include user files. The generation and storage of the backup itself is billed
with the same bandwidth and storage pricing as user file storage. You can
observe this bandwidth and storage cost in the
[usage dashboard](https://dashboard.convex.dev/team/settings/usage). Check the
[limits docs](/production/state/limits#database) for pricing details.

### What does the backup not contain?

The backup only contains the documents for your tables and files in file
storage. In particular it lacks:

1. Your deployment's code and configuration. Convex functions, crons.ts,
   auth.config.js, schema.ts, etc. are configured in your source code.
2. Pending scheduled functions. You can access pending scheduled functions in
   the [`_scheduled_functions`](/database/advanced/system-tables.mdx) system
   table.
3. Environment variables. Environment variables can be copied from Settings in
   the Convex dashboard.
